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The Constitutional Right to Save the Environment?

Oct13
  • Date: October 13, 2021
    Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm
    Location: Online
    IA
Contact:
Environmental Law Institute (events@eli.org)

More than 50 years ago, Franklin Kury drafted and championed an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. The amendment was enacted on Earth Day 1970 and ratified by Pennsylvania’s voters a year later. In the half century since then, climate change has become a paramount threat to the future of the planet. With climate change accelerating at an unprecedented rate, one question is pressing to the forefront: what role can constitutional law play in mitigating climate change?

In his book, The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet: The Right to a Healthy Environment, Franklin Kury expands upon the story of his amendment to demonstrate how its principles can be the basis for addressing climate change in the rest of the world. It calls for the federal government’s leadership to seek a national environmental rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a treaty to expand its reach to the international community.

Join the Environmental Law Institute, author Franklin Kury, and leading experts for an in-depth exploration of the impact environmental rights amendments can have on stabilizing the climate system through legal channels at the state and federal levels.

See the panelists, get more details, and register for free